Uno Happily Irrepressible!

Summer.
Tis' the season of feline nudity, hot humid weather, insect pests, and allergies, especially flea allergy. Like many, maybe most, cats are quite sensitive to fleas. It takes only one flea bite for a sensitive cat to react with itching, scratching, chewing at oneself, and resultant hair loss. Flea allergy forms a recognizable patteern of hair loss on the back above the tail, down the backs of the hind legs, on the underside, and around the neck. In addition, sores are created as a cat scratches and chews at itself to try to relieve the itching. Summer is also the time when the threat of heartworm is at its worst: Yes kitties can get heartworm and heartworm in kitties is much more serious than it is in dogs because if a kitty has even one heartworm and that heartworm dies in the kitty it can kill the kitty too. Heartworm is easily prevented and kitties, especially outdoor kitties, should be given heartworm preventative in warm weather seasons.

This is why Mom tells us kitties that monthly flea drops are a necessary evil. She says she doesn't care that we don't like the oily feel of the drops or the smell of them (sometimes humans are lucky having such a poor sense of smell!), we have to wear flea drops for our own good. Mom said for me to tell everyone to NEVER USE ANY PRODUCT THAT HAS PERMETHRIN IN IT BECAUSE PERMETHRIN IS POISONOUS TO CATS. I must reluctantly admit that after Mom has treated us with our flea drops, we get about four weeks free of the damned fleas before Mom has to treat us again.

I'm one of those unlucky kitties who is quite sensitive to flea allergy and who also tends to "go naked" aka have a short sparse summer coat. Some kitties like Velcro and Little Skittles, are so lucky. They don't seem to be that allergic to fleas and they also have enough coat in the summer they still look good. However, Velcro says I'm lucky because I stay a lot cooler in the summer because of my short sparse coat. He wishes he had MY feline nudist look.

Hey everyone, gotta go. It's flea drop time again, Mom is armed, and I gotta hide and try to delay the inevitable as long as possible. See ya later everyone!

Thanks so much from the heavenly realms where I am now...
Your Mom i so right in saying that kitties can and do die from heartworm, we don't often do more than cough and our peeps think we have big hairballs, or maybe asthma if its bad, but in the past no one thought too much about heartworm...certainly not my pawrents...
And so sadly I contracted that when my toddler unfurbro let me escape into the yard in the hot humid mosquito filled yard...and then just like that, one cold November day, I went to live in Kitty Heaven. Because of the season, no one thought about heartworm, but the next spring when meowmy took the furmily to the vet fur their yearly's; he suggested we all start on a preventative. Then meowmy asked if purrhaps that might have happened to me, and he said definitely.
So from then on, all kitties who live here get that all year round, because mosquitoes can be in the home, even in the wintertime.